Techno-economic analysis of hydrogen supply chains and hydrogen aircrafts for Gauteng Metropolitan Region of South Africa

Abstract

Climate change is one of the issues that are results of greenhouse gas emissions. An important portion of energy consumption in metropolitan regions is transportation which has significant effect on greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, air traffic is a notable contribution to these emissions. Hydrogen is one of the potential alternative fuels for future aviation transportation. Even though hydrogen seems like a promising alternative fuel, climate change mitigation tendency and commercially competitiveness of hydrogen are not proved yet and still under investigation. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate future availability of hydrogen air transportation in Gauteng metropolitan region of South Africa. In order to assess entire hydrogen life cycle costs in Gauteng metropolitan region, current and future hydrogen production costs and efficiencies from coal, natural gas, biomass and electrolysis are analyzed. Distribution costs of hydrogen from centralized production fields to the international airport and onsite liquefaction costs are also analyzed for hydrogen. The conversion of a conventional airplane to a hydrogen fuel airplane design costs are determined and compared with the conventional aircraft. Finally, overall hydrogen utilization in air transportation is analyzed with a techno-economic approach. In addition to all, the main obstacles are the high costs of hydrogen production and hydrogen infrastructures. The result of the current and future comparisons of production and transportation costs shows that operating a hydrogen aircraft might be doable earliest around 2040 after competing hydrogen fuel prices with kerosene with further research and support by policy makers.